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'In the tradition of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, a funny, dark, and tender coming-of-age memoir about life as a perpetual fish-out-of-water, from the Yugoslavian-born comedic storyteller, MothStorySLAM favorite, and host of the Women of Letters literary salon.

'Sofija Stefanovic makes the first of many awkward entrances in 1982, born in Yugoslavia just as her communist country begins to crumble. The circumstances of her birth (a blackout, gasoline shortages, bickering parents) don't exactly get her off to a running start. While around her ethnic tensions are being stoked by hotheaded totalitarian leaders with violent agendas, Sofija's early years are filled with rock music, inadvisable crushes, micro-miniskirts whose Serbian name means "to the pussy," and enough insecurity to sink a Croatian submarine.

'In 1988 her parents finally decide to flee to Australia, where Sofija ditches ESL class, experiments with bad hairstyles, and makes out with her bedroom mirror for practice. As conflicts escalate back home, her parents are glued to the nightly news, anxious for loved ones, homesick, clinging to their insular community. While her father toils at work and her eloquent mother is relegated to the bungled speech of a foreigner, Sofija is eager to find acceptance among her friends, going to hilarious lengths to hide her morbid, unassimilated family.

'But everything comes to a screeching halt with the sudden illness of her father, unseating concerns about assimilation and the situation back home, rupturing Sofija's universe as she prepares to embark out on her own for the first time.

'In Miss Ex-Yugoslavia, Sofija offers us a window inside a beleaguered culture that she both cherishes and resents, capturing the experience of not quite connecting with your old country, and yet never quite being embraced by your new one. Both refreshingly candid and wonderfully vulnerable, Miss Ex-Yugoslavia will stay with you for a long time.'

Works about this Work

'Ms. Stefanovic hosts the literary salon “Women of Letters, New York” and “This Alien Nation,” a monthly celebration of immigration, and is a regular storyteller with The Moth. Her memoir, “Miss Ex-Yugoslavia,” has just been published.'

'When she was 22, Sofija Stefanovic was a contestant in a pageant to determine the “beauty queen of a country that no longer exists.” The competition for the title of Miss Ex-Yugoslavia was held in Australia, the country to which Ms. Stefanovic’s family had moved when the author, born in Belgrade in 1982, was 5. “It’s a weird idea for a competition — bringing young women from a war-torn country together to be objectified,” Ms. Stefanovic writes, “but in our little diaspora, we’re used to contradictions.” Having lived through the mounting political tensions in Yugoslavia, which led to a decade of war, Ms. Stefanovic had to adjust to life in a calmer but very different place. In her new memoir, she writes about the trials of immigration with seriousness but also a disarming humor. Below, she discusses the onstage performances she delivered that inspired her to write the book, her admiration for the creativity of certain revolutionaries and more.' (Introduction)

'In 1982, Sofija Stefanovic is born into a stable and peaceful Yugoslavia. Marshal Tito is dead but the guiding principles of Brotherhood and Unity that have held the republic together for 40 years are holding firm. With a doting extended family, and parents who have enjoyed the socialist republic’s free education system to become professionals – her father an engineer and her mother a psychologist – her early childhood is happy.' (Introduction)

'In 1982, Sofija Stefanovic is born into a stable and peaceful Yugoslavia. Marshal Tito is dead but the guiding principles of Brotherhood and Unity that have held the republic together for 40 years are holding firm. With a doting extended family, and parents who have enjoyed the socialist republic’s free education system to become professionals – her father an engineer and her mother a psychologist – her early childhood is happy.' (Introduction)

'When she was 22, Sofija Stefanovic was a contestant in a pageant to determine the “beauty queen of a country that no longer exists.” The competition for the title of Miss Ex-Yugoslavia was held in Australia, the country to which Ms. Stefanovic’s family had moved when the author, born in Belgrade in 1982, was 5. “It’s a weird idea for a competition — bringing young women from a war-torn country together to be objectified,” Ms. Stefanovic writes, “but in our little diaspora, we’re used to contradictions.” Having lived through the mounting political tensions in Yugoslavia, which led to a decade of war, Ms. Stefanovic had to adjust to life in a calmer but very different place. In her new memoir, she writes about the trials of immigration with seriousness but also a disarming humor. Below, she discusses the onstage performances she delivered that inspired her to write the book, her admiration for the creativity of certain revolutionaries and more.' (Introduction)

'Ms. Stefanovic hosts the literary salon “Women of Letters, New York” and “This Alien Nation,” a monthly celebration of immigration, and is a regular storyteller with The Moth. Her memoir, “Miss Ex-Yugoslavia,” has just been published.'